Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a charge control technique for a battery of a hybrid vehicle.
Description of the Related Art
A vehicle such as a hybrid vehicle including an engine, a travel driving motor, and a driving battery can use a power generator driven by the engine to charge the driving battery. Such a hybrid vehicle allows a normal power generation mode in which, for example, when a state of charge of the driving battery decreases, the engine is automatically actuated to charge the driving battery.
Further, a vehicle has been also developed that allows a forced power generation mode in which an engine is forcedly actuated by an occupant operating a switch or the like to generate electric power until a driving battery is almost fully charged.
Also, many hybrid vehicles include a cooling system that cools electric instruments such as a power generator, a travel driving motor, and an inverter that controls supply of electric power to the travel driving motor. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2012-171557 discloses a hybrid vehicle having a configuration in which engine cooling water is circulated to cool an electric instrument such as an inverter.
However, if the hybrid vehicle including the cooling system for the electric instrument as described above further allows a forced power generation mode, performing the forced power generation mode increases a load on the engine to increase a temperature of the cooling water, which may make it difficult to cool the engine itself, and further cool the electric instrument such as an inverter using the cooling system.